Here you will find nonsense about thrifting, vintage, wandering, my adventures in antique mall reselling, and St Louis. And various other nonsense, as my whims take me.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

An organized room, and the fancy, fancy china

So, I mentioned the other day how I had turned myself in to the organization police in the form of my friend Melanie, who tackles such projects like they're second nature to her.

Today she came over at noon, and once we at some lunch, we got to work transforming this:

Shamefully jam-packed spare room crammed completely full. There's not even a path through the chaos.

First, we dragged everything out and piled it all around the living/dining/kitchen rooms of my house. Yes, there's so much stuff in here that it took up pretty much the whole rest of my house! Here's during, once we'd pretty much cleaned it out and started putting the shelves in:

Don't mind the giant baby crib full of vintage clothing and whatnot. That one part is a job for a whole other day.

After some re-configuring (like deciding we needed the full perimeter of the room, so the clothing rack, with its wheels, makes the most sense in front of the windows), we started sorting things into categories and filling it all back in. Here are a few small shots of that in-progress:

And here's the room now - and I promise, what was there before is still there now:

Everything's sorted and stored, there's room to walk around (a bit), and the you can get to it all!

And one of the best things about getting this room organized is that I finally have been able to sort through the huge set of fancy, fancy china I picked up awhile back at the Salvation Army on Cherokee Street. It's one of the highest quality, most beautiful, best purchases I ever made, and it took revamping the entire room to get it all in one place together and get a count on the pieces. In the center of the 3 'during' pics above, you can see that the smallest wire shelf/rack is already chock full of dishes (go ahead, click on it and see!). That was before I found the rest of the plates and bowls. I'm pretty sure this was originally a service for 12, because I now have at least 9 of everything, plus spares, and to my untrained eye, it looks to be in excellent condition. Take a peek!:

Fancy, fancy china! Cups and berry bowls pictured.

It's labelled Meito Norleans China, Fairfield, Made in Occupied Japan. It's so delicate I'm afraid it will dissolve in my hands, and it's beautiful. Way too beautiful to be in my possession - I'm a danger to myself and my things, as you saw in the before picture up top. And yet I didn't break any of it! If the Internets are to be believed, it's pretty darn rare, this china. Currently there's not a single piece of it on Etsy, or Ebay, or Ruby Lane, or anywhere else I could find except for Replacements.com, and even they can only offer you 2 imperfect cups and saucers (I have over 60 pieces!). Beyond that all they offer is the information that the pattern was discontinued circa 1950, and since it's marked 'Made in Occupied Japan', I think that narrows this down to the second half of the 1940s. It's so, so beautiful you guys! I'm scared to take it to my booth. Scared I'll break it along the way, scared it will make everything else I sell look crummy by comparison, and/or scared I won't be able to sell it for anywhere near what it's worth because the rest of my stuff is nifty, but far less rare and special. I'm taking advice on the situation!

Oh yeah, way to go with the organizing jag! That's how it happens for me too, I finally get a hair up my bum about getting a particular room in order and then do it all at once! Love, love, love the china set. I have a thing for dish sets and I definitely would have snatched that set up if I had seen it. I just found you through Beez Rental Designs. I'm your latest follower and a fellow newbie. I hope you'll stop by and check me out at www.crazythriftycrafts.blogspot.com. Thanks for sharing!

I say get it to the booth! Do you have a case in your booth to keep all the butter fingers from accidentally dropping it? It is beautiful, but unless you'll be displaying it in your own home, it's not fair to keep it from being enjoyed by somebody else. Ah, the guilt of loving vintage...the intense need to "save" everything from inevitable doom.

Oh when you put it that way, you're so right. But no, I don't have a display case in my booth. I think, though, for a higher commission I might be able to put them in one of the antique mall's display cases. I'll have to look into that.